Weldon William Wald www.ancestry.com in the U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 Name: Weldon W Wald Birth Year: 1923 Race: White, citizen (White) Nativity State or Country: Texas State of Residence: Texas County or City: Bell Enlistment Date: 7 Jan 1943 Enlistment State: Texas Enlistment City: Fort Sam Houston Branch: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA Branch Code: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA Grade: Private Grade Code: Private Term of Enlistment: Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law Component: Selectees (Enlisted Men) Source: Civil Life Education: 3 years of high school Civil Occupation: Surveyors Marital Status: Married Height: 71 Weight: 164 in the U.S. Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945 Name: Weldon W Wald Gender: Male Race: White Religion: No Record Disposition: Nonrecoverable Service Branch: Army Rank: Staff Sergeant Service Number: 38364854 in the World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas Name: Weldon W Wald Inducted From: Texas Rank: Staff Sergeant Combat Organization: 853rd Engineers Battalion Aviation Death Date: 27 Nov 1943 Monument: North Africa Last Known Status: Missing U.S. Awards: Purple Heart Medal

Provided by Wendish Research Exchange, www.wendishresearch.org https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=137864474 Birth: Jan. 23, 1923 Death: Nov. 27, 1943 Parents: W J Wald (1902 - 1949) & Meta M Hanusch Wald (1899 - 1990) Inscription: IN MEMORY OF S SGT U S ARMY WORLD WAR II PURPLE HEART Burial: Hillcrest Cemetery, Temple, Bell County, Texas, USA Plot: SECTION 2

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=56251037 SSgt Weldon W Wald Death: Nov. 27, 1943 Note: Entered the service from Texas. Burial: North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial, Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia

AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION Weldon W. Wald Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army Air Forces Service # 38364854 853rd Engineer Battalion, Aviation Entered the Service from: Texas Died: 27-Nov-43 Missing in Action or Buried at Sea Tablets of the Missing at North Africa American Cemetery Carthage, Tunisia Awards: Purple Heart

Provided by Wendish Research Exchange, www.wendishresearch.org A Calamity at Sea, 70 Years Ago By Jesse Greenspan

On November 26, 1943, the day after Thanksgiving, German bombers attacked a convoy of Allied ships traveling through the Mediterranean Sea on its way to the Far Eastern theater of World War II. At first, the assault appeared to be failing. But as the sun set, a remote-controlled glider bomb slammed into the HMT Rohna, a British transport with mostly Americans onboard, and blew gaping holes in both the port and starboard sides. Despite the presence of nearby rescue boats, 1,149 men went down with the Rohna, an incident the U.S. government largely kept secret for decades.

The HMT Rohna, an 8,602-ton, coal-burning vessel, was not built for the military. Lacking alternatives, the British nonetheless pressed it and many other ships like it into service during World War II as troop transports. In the early-to-middle stages of the conflict, the Rohna carried men and supplies between Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Bombay, India, evacuated women and children from Singapore, and participated in the invasion of Sicily. It then headed to , Algeria, where about 2,000 U.S. troops boarded it. On Thanksgiving 1943, the Rohna and five other troop transports left port to join convoy KMF- 26 in the middle of its journey from Britain to India. Survivors of the Rohna disaster later recalled that their Thanksgiving meal consisted principally of watery canned chicken and weevil-filled bread.

The following late afternoon, as the convoy sailed roughly a dozen miles off the North African coast, about 30 German aircraft swooped in. The ships responded by opening fire, putting up a thick smoke screen and attempting to electronically jam the Nazis’ bomb frequencies. With the assistance of Allied fighter planes, they destroyed several German bombers while initially suffering very little damage of their own. During the second wave of the attack, however, a German bombardier guided a remote-controlled glider bomb—a precursor to today’s “smart” missiles—into the Rohna about 15 feet above the waterline. The subsequent explosion started an engine room fire, sent debris flying and knocked out the ship’s lights, communications systems and water pressure. It also punctured holes in the sides so large that, as one survivor put it, “you could drive a truck through.”

An estimated 300 men died in the blast, and the casualty toll only grew from there, arguably due in part to the Rohna’s deficiencies. Of the 22 lifeboats onboard, most were either destroyed by the bomb, defective or mishandled. And the remainder were “old, beaten up things,” one survivor asserted. At least some of the ship’s 101 rubber life rafts were likewise unusable, and the men apparently never received proper instructions on how to inflate their life belts. Moreover, the crew “had no thoughts in the emergency for anyone but themselves,” according to a report from the U.S. Adjutant General’s office. (Other sources say the crew acted honorably and that the lifesaving equipment was adequate.) Within an hour or so, the Rohna disappeared below the surface, and all those who hadn’t yet jumped into the water were forced to do so. Many were sucked under the ship never to reappear; others found themselves covered in leaking oil. The cold, darkness, big swells and strong currents also took their toll, as did German strafing fire.

In the aftermath of the attack, the commander of the convoy designated a handful of rescue ships and ordered the remainder to continue on course. The USS Pioneer, a minesweeper, proved to be the most adept at finding survivors, picking up 606. The Mindful saved over 200 additional men, and the freighter Clan Campbell pulled 83 from the water despite high decks that made rescue operations difficult. At the same time, the Atherstone, the corvette Holcombe and a French tugboat that came from shore retrieved a few dozen men between them. The rescuers worked throughout the night, coming across their last survivor nearly 12 hours after the Rohna sank. Nevertheless, 1,015 American GIs, 120 British and Indian crewmembers, 11 gunners and three Red Cross workers didn’t make it out alive. No other U.S. military disaster at sea has ever been deadlier.

After a few weeks of rest, the Rohna survivors followed the rest of the convoy to India, from where some then dispersed to Burma and China. Meanwhile, since most of the dead bodies remained unrecovered, the U.S. government classified them as “missing in action.” The notified families originally held out hope. “From my experiences in the Navy I’ve heard of hundreds of men who were reported missing, and showed up a few months later,” Harold Glickman, the cousin of Pvt. Abraham Gunn, wrote to Gunn’s parents on

Provided by Wendish Research Exchange, www.wendishresearch.org January 5, 1944. “We just must be patient and calm, but above all we must never, never lose our faith.” Later on, however, the status of Gunn and his fellow Rohna victims was changed to “killed in action.”

In order to prevent the Germans from learning about the success of their cutting-edge remote-controlled bomb, the U.S. government disclosed only vague details about the incident, such as that around 1,000 men had been lost at sea. By and large, this secrecy stayed in place following the war. Finally, after a survivor secured the release of relevant documents under the Freedom of Information Act, the Birmingham News published a piece on the Rohna in 1993 that was picked up by the Associated Press. The first reunion of Rohna survivors took place later that year, a monument was dedicated at Alabama’s Fort Mitchell National Cemetery in 1996 and a few books on the subject came out in 1997 and 1998. Congress then got involved, honoring both the dead and the survivors in a 2000 resolution. “The men who gave their lives for their country on board this ship were heroes who deserve to be recognized and not forgotten,” Congressman Jack Metcalf, the resolution’s sponsor, said on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that September. “All Americans need to learn of their bravery and sacrifice.”

History of the Rohna

On November 26, 1943, during WWII, one thousand, one hundred and thirty eight men perished when a British troopship, the HMT Rohna, was attacked from the air and destroyed in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Algeria. Two important but virtually unknown historical events occurred at that time.

It was the first successful “hit” of a merchant vessel at sea carrying US troops by a German remote- controlled, rocket-boosted bomb, thus giving birth to the “Missile Age,” and it resulted in the greatest loss of troops (1,015) at sea in U.S. history. Combined with the loss of ship’s crew and officers, and three Red Cross workers, more lives were lost than on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.

The “hit” was so devastating that the U.S. Government placed a veil of secrecy upon it. The events which followed were so shameful that the secrecy continued for decades until recently, when documents were grudgingly released under pressure of the Freedom of Information Act. The government still does not acknowledge this tragedy, thus most families of the casualties still do not know the fate of their loved ones.

The Memorial

In 1995, over fifty years later, a group of Rohna survivors, next-of-kin and rescuers, informally came together for the sole purpose of enabling the creation and dedication of a Rohna Memorial.

On Memorial Day, 1996, a monument was dedicated to the memory of the 1015 men who lost their lives in this incident, at Fort Mitchell National Cemetery in Seales, Alabama.

Four years later, The Rohna Survivors Memorial Association was more formally organized. Many of those involved in the earlier Memorial Dedication project worked diligently toward the formation of this new organization. Read more.

The Association

In 1999, articles and by-laws were drawn up and the association defined its goals, which are:  To continue in the search for survivors as-yet-undiscovered and the families of those who perished, so as to provide them with information they never had about the fate of their loved ones,  To bring the Rohna story before the public, to honor the men who lost their lives in this incident and those on the rescue vessels who acted selflessly in their rescue efforts,  And to further, by reunions and other communications, the closeness among the membership

HMT Rhona Casualties Wald, Weldon W., S/Sgt., 38364854 CE

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